Civil Rights/Slavery

CA 270

19th century Catalan AUCA titled Vida y Aventuras de un Negrito. the subject is captured in Africa, sold in America, becomes a household servant, becomes wealthy when his master dies, becomes a general, ends up shipwrecked in Africa, captured by monkeys and hung. Repaired on reverse. Extremely rare. B

Price: $700.00

CA 269

December 15, 1964 issue of Europe Magazine featuring a lynched negro in America. The title reads: Negroes do not do the detail.

Price: $70.00

CA 268CA 268

Two 1993 Fact card produced by Atlas Editions on patriotic Southern blacks and black Confederate soldiers. Though the Confederacy never put a unit of black soldiers in the field, there were an unknown number of free black men in the South who took up arms to defend their Southern homes and way of life. In 1860 about 2,000 free blacks in the South, some of them plantation owners, owned more than 10,000 black slaves. When the remains of 1,616 Rebels at Indianapolis’s Camp Morton Prison were dug up and relocated, 24 of the skeletons were found to have been black men. As slaves of Rebel soldiers were generally freed, not imprisoned, it appears that these black men gave their lives in Confederate service. B

Price: $60.00

CA 267

1993 Fact card produced by Atlas Editions on the Christiana Riot. Also known as Christiana Resistance, Christiana Tragedy, or Christiana incident, it was the successful armed resistance by free Blacks and escaped slaves to a raid led by a federal marshal to recover four escaped slaves owned by Edward Gorsuch of Maryland. The raid took place in the early morning hours of September 11, 1851, at the house in Christiana, Pennsylvania, of William Parker, himself an escaped slave. This took place after the federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 increased penalties for assisting escaped slaves and required state government officials, even in free states such as Pennsylvania, to assist in the recapture of slaves.

The confrontation resulted in an exchange of gunfire, the death of Edward Gorsuch, and the dispersal of the raiders. In the aftermath many of the Blacks involved quickly traveled to the safety of Canada. In total, 41 persons were indicted by the federal government for treason, including both Blacks and Whites. Castner Hanway, a white man from Christiana, was the first to be tried, beginning in November 1851. After only 15 minutes of deliberation by the jury he was acquitted, and charges against the remaining defendants were dropped. The issue became a national lightning rod, and aroused strong sectional sentiment. It was one of many events leading to the American Civil War. B

Price: $30.00

CA 266

1993 Fact card produced by Atlas Editions on Scalawags, White Southern Republicans. Any white southern politician who joined the Republican party after the war and advocated the acceptance of Congressional Reconstruction were labeled scalawags. The term has been traced to Scalloway, a town in the Shetland Islands known for its stunted cattle. Col. Franklin J. Moses, Jr., is an example of the worst of the scalawags. He had been an ardent secessionist and had raised the Confederate flag over Fort Sumter in 1861. After the war he joined the Republicans, became governor of South Carolina, and looted the state treasury. B

Price: $30.00

CA 265

1993 Fact card by Atlas Editions on the Battle of Olustee. On February 20, 1864, the Battle of Olustee (also known as the Battle of Ocean Pond) was fought in Baker County, Florida. It was the largest battle of the Civil War fought in Florida and involved more than 10,000 soldiers, including three regiments of US Colored Troops. Anxious to avenge the Battery Wagner repulse, the Fifty-fourth was the best black regiment available to General Seymour, the Union commander of the Florida Expedition. However, only 13 officers and 497 enlisted men from companies B, C, D, F, G, H, I and K were present at Olustee, two other companies, A and E, having been detailed for guard duty at Barbers Plantation.

Along with the 35th United States Colored Troops, the Fifty-fourth entered the fighting late in the day at Olustee, and helped save the Union army from complete disaster. The Fifty-fourth marched into battle yelling, "Three cheers for Massachusetts and seven dollars a month." The latter referred to the difference in pay between white and colored Union infantry, long a sore point with colored troops. Congress had just passed a bill correcting this and giving colored troops equal pay. However, word of the bill would not reach these troops until after the battle of Olustee. The regiment lost eighty-six men in the battle, the lowest number of the three black regiments present. The 54th Massachustetts, as well as the 35th United States Colored Troops, served as the rearguard for the Union Army and possibly prevented its destruction. B

Price: $30.00

CA 264CA 264

1930 KKK medallion for the Grand Sentinel Guard, #22. Realm of the Texas KKK. Extremely rare. B

Price: $1500.00

Note: The Grand Sentinel was appointed by the Grand Cyclops, the head of a Klan Den. He was in charge of the "Grand Guard", which apparently served as the Dens security detail. The owner of this medallion served as the Grand Sentinel of a Klan Den #22.

CA 263